D&D 5E Unearthed Arcana: Gothic Lineages & New Race/Culture Distinction

The latest Unearthed Arcana contains the Dhampir, Reborn, and Hexblood races. The Dhampir is a half-vampire; the Hexblood is a character which has made a pact with a hag; and the Reborn is somebody brought back to life.

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Perhaps the bigger news is this declaration on how race is to be handled in future D&D books as it joins other games by stating that:

"...the race options in this article and in future D&D books lack the Ability Score Increase trait, the Language trait, the Alignment trait, and any other trait that is purely cultural. Racial traits henceforth reflect only the physical or magical realities of being a player character who’s a member of a particular lineage. Such traits include things like darkvision, a breath weapon (as in the dragonborn), or innate magical ability (as in the forest gnome). Such traits don’t include cultural characteristics, like language or training with a weapon or a tool, and the traits also don’t include an alignment suggestion, since alignment is a choice for each individual, not a characteristic shared by a lineage."

 

[Catulle]

STOP HARASSING ME!

You really do have the power. Or you could keep constructing something in an attempt to get the last word. That would also be a choice. I have the sense of a proxy conflict in either case, so if you stop engaging with me, I'll stop engaging with you. OK, kitten, or do you need the final word on that, too?

 

[Catulle]

If that is some racist 'call out' then I will endeavor to not do so in the future, it's an easy change and I apologize if like the '88' we saw earlier thats something I am just not aware of, thats my mistake, sorry.

It's not a biggie, but tends to throw up flags when one's familiar with olde time Race Theory. My background's in social work, so I'll admit my calibration is set a little more tense.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Looking at a host of complaints by several posters.

@Catulle : one of ENWorld’s basic rules is “Don’t make it personal.” You‘ve done that multiple times in this thread, so you’ll be getting a warning point.

@Alzrius : mods aren’t your personal enforcers. Report behavior you think violates the site’s ToS (you did), not by using the @ function to call the mods (which you also did). And use the ignore function instead of posting requests in thread to stop harassment- it’s not flawless, but that’s why we have it.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I do have trouble with the very notion that Halflings should be able to get a bonus in Strength equal to everyone else.

They're half the size of most characters. Strength is a function of size. To my mind it would be very reasonable to put a maximum cap on the strength of halflings.

To my mind insisting that haflings need to be able to have the same strength of Half-Orcs and Goliaths is like insisting they need to be able to fly, because Aarockras can.

The difference is that of course that Strength is important to several classes so restricting Strength makes those classes difficult for halflings. (Although it's really only an issue for the Barbarian - every other class can go Dex for melee - so it's not even like the halfling doesn't an alternative route to the same end).

I'm fine with PCs breaking the mold, but it's an odd thing when there isn't even a mold to break. If I was using something like 13th Age's One Unique Thing, and the player said "my character is the child of the halfling god of strength" then I might say "sure you can go to 20 Strength" - now there is a mold and you just broke it.

I've said this a few times, but I'll repeat it.

Find me mention of halflings or Goliaths in the UA. Anywhere. CTRL + F it. Nothing in this UA is about Halflings and Goliaths.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Indeed, it is a team game, not competitive one. So if your halfling fighter doesn't do exactly the same amount of damage than the half-orc one, it doesn't really matter; you're not competing against them.

However, the half-orc having a higher strength score actually represents something; it simulates the bigger creature being stronger. I care about at least some level of verisimilitude. If the game rules become completely detached from the reality they're supposed to represent, then I have no use for them. And ultimately I feel this is true for everyone, their comfort levels just differ. I fully understand that this particular thing doesn't matter to everyone, whilst some other verisimilitude fails that I can overlook might bother others.

Hey, guess what. I'm going to do a magic trick.

Go to your PHB, open it up to page 41.

PRESTO! Half-Orcs get +2 Strength. This UA doesn't change that, it doesn't affect Half-Orcs at all, in any way, even a minute bit.

So, there is no problem.

 

[Faolyn]

So what? It could be magic. Or they could just flap their arms very fast. Who knows. Makes about as much sense than halflings being just as strong than much larger species.

OK, show so me a canonical race that has that ability. Go ahead.

I think you can. I kinda can. I've been drawing bunch of concept sketches for my new setting; size comparison charts, stuff like that. When I have my orcs and elflings side by side, it is super clear which ones should be stronger.

So we have to assume that only creatures that can be shown bulging with muscles are strong. OK. So I can draw a halfling bulging with muscles and give it a high strength score, yes?

They're small.

So? Do we need to go back to the "chimpanzees are small but much stronger than humans" argument?

Edit: And I keep asking this and you guys don't answer: why is it so horrible that a PC halfling have a high Strength, when every other NPC halfling in the setting will have whatever low Strength the DM wants? Are you really so against the idea that a PC have an unusual and unique trait?

Nah, they can trade it for their armour proficiency or some other trait.

So why can't they trade +2 Dex for +2 Strength?

And also edit: I think most people agree that a +2 is a +2 is a +2, but flight at low levels is more powerful than proficiency.

Well, a random character generation is a mistake in the first place. But sure, it would bother me less as the total still was 15. In many ways stat caps would probably be a better system than bonuses. That's what I did for my character creation houserules.

Considering how many people still prefer rolling for stats, you really have no right to claim that it's "a mistake."

Also, we haven't had attribute caps since 2nd edition. You do realize that this is currently 5th edition, yes? You don't get to complain that the game is moving forward when all you want to do is drag it backwards.

 

[Faolyn]

I've said this a few times, but I'll repeat it.

Find me mention of halflings or Goliaths in the UA. Anywhere. CTRL + F it. Nothing in this UA is about Halflings and Goliaths.

It's because new races aren't going to have fixed ASIs. Apparently it's horrible that a PC might be unusual in some way.

 

[bedir than]

They will be significantly worse in that even with floating ASIs. Small creatures can't use heavy weapons. The solution would be to amend the barbarian class to better support dex builds, not homogenise all PC species.

How does one read the two pages per race and think that they're the same just because they likely will no longer have +2 STR (or whatever)?

 

[Chaosmancer]

The answer here would be 'something different, and magically infused'.

Vampires as tropes are often fast and strong. Physically they dominate as a different being than what they were before turning into Vampires. While not quite the same, thats what I would have had them templated under.

The Hexblood would be under Wis/Int/Cha.

The Reborn, would be tough, with some perception (Wisdom as was being discussed earlier) type bonus.

All imo of course.

So, you don't have races for them.

Hagborn (a version of Hexbloods from 3.5) had Str/Con

The Dhampir in the UA could be a psychic being, with bonuses to Intelligence and Charisma.

A reborn could be a ceramic doll, they wouldn't be tough. Or they could be a gnome possessed by an archmage, and get a +2 INT and +1 Dex

There are no races or even static scores that fit with these, and you acknowledge it could be many things. So... nothing in this UA is involving specific races like you keep insisting.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Yes, and that's why I said earlier that floating ASIs kinda make sense for them. These are things that are 'converted' from other living things, so you can match the ASIs (and size) to the type of creature you were converted from. Though it would be nice if they could also gains some ribbony racial traits from the originating species too, and as they don't, the system seems a bit incomplete. Like reborn 'tabaxi' has no claws, hexblood 'elf' has no trance etc.

Yeah, it would be nice, but I could see those ending up a little too powerful. Probably better for that to be homebrew.